Hey Guys,
I've posted once or twice before with similar issues - I am an aspiring rapper, but the mixing and mastering is much too tedious for me, I think I have a tin ear, I cannot seem to hear subtle differences, yet I know what I like when I hear it. I've just posted my latest track on this thread...I think it sounds decent but I know it needs better mixing/mastering. The lyrics don't stand out from the beat very well.
I'm either looking for tips, or straight up help. This is the last mix I received from the instrumental's producer, but he is more EDM, and doesn't do a lot of hip-hop mixing. Any help, or suggestions would be awesome!
Also...opinion on the music itself...always appreciated.
Thanks guys,
- D
Edit: I have the separate vocals and instrumental tracks if anyone really wants to try their hand at it...even willing to pay if it changes my life, haha.
Sorry man, the best I can do is say this: You want to know how to make something of said quality? so you can either pay someone to make it for you, or you can learn to do it yourself. You basically need to learn man. stop shorting yourself relying on others. your craft will really develop once you understand the surrounding stages of music production, and then you will learn how to implement your own taste, tricks, etc.
best advice I can give is youtube search: how to mix .... how to master .... how to build mixing / mastering studios time lapse. Basically I cant help you yet really, till I know how far you are willing to go. I started here:
one: start with your room, size and shape, and the monitors you use, sub... and you need to analyze the room - treat the room, and spend some time to be accustomed to the translation to other media, systems...
two: Id say getting a mixer is a plus, or a usb fader controller for your ssl in the daw... idk what daw you use, I use Reason and it has a ssl mixer. This will help with the feel of being in a studio, will help motivate, give you some flexibility in templates, and improve your time of learning the art of mixing.
three: google and dl the free pdf books on mixing and mastering - one engineer I follow is bob katz. tons of material written by him on this material and is considered a professional. he knows his shit, there are many others as well.
four: find a studio near you and ask if you can volunteer or intern for a summer and start getting the information from the commercial side of things, production as in work type environment.
five: start learning about the gear and why mixing gear/studios are different from mastering...
six: use vst's if you cant afford the hardware. You can start to do your own process once you get a nice daw, a few vsts, and something like ozone 8 advanced... etc.
Basically, what I do is my sound design till I get what I want for samples and a sequence. then I do a gain stage and level up my samples to where I know they should be on the mixer... I do have a place where I put every kick that comes thru my mixer, its just how I work flow. I start with kick, snare, then high hat and get that balanced, adding the bassline after. once i get the balance of these elements, I add the remainder samples and level them up till everything is balanced. then I go thru and check the filters, low and high pass on each sample. gotta make sure the kick punches thru the bass, so I carve a hole with the eq. Basically I check the eq spectrum of the mix by spiking a sharp q and rolling thru the spectrum till I find high resonance. I reduce the trouble freqs and resist adding energy to the mix. I start with subtractive eq here. Once I get the levels nice, and the buses are compressed, I will deal out the imaging and stereo separation. front, back, left right... top bottom. not too much effects, remember less is more.
Once I bounce the mix to stereo I use a new template for the master, All I use here is a limiter and a compressor, and ozone 8 processing to simply shine up whatever else needs.
The trick is mixing at lower volumes, having your monitors exactly where they need to be, a triangle where first and second reflections are present. MY goal is to get the rms of my song around 50% of my computer input, while the peaks hit the top. Once I am there I know I got a loud enough mix/master
really, watching youtube and working search results is a good way to get what you want to watch, there are tons of sources...
Id recommend searching youtube for acoustic fields and learn the basics by watching his playlists relating to what you need.
Ive listened to your song over 12 times now, and I cant say there is much wrong with it... want it better? then tune in to what you are using for gear, the position of it, the room and treatment, and the basics in sound physics ... practice as well. your song sound good man. Id love to mix it.
cheers! If I can help more, send me a message. I can maybe copy some links or something for ya or get ya to the pdfs, or vids, or what not.